[Gllug] LDAP

[Mike Brodbelt]

On Tue, 2003-10-28 at 13:33, Peter Childs wrote:
> 	Does anyone know of any good beginners guides to LDAP. I've been
> trying to get my head round it for a while and have quite frankly got
> completly confused.

There are two IBM redbooks on LDAP which are excellent for starting
with. They are "Understanding LDAP", and the "LDAP Implementation
Cookbook". They are complete books, available for free in PDF format.
URLs are:-

http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/9445fa5b416f6e32852569ae006bb65f/912ecdc5d22172a68625662800797758?OpenDocument
http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/9445fa5b416f6e32852569ae006bb65f/1017e6a296d98edb86256737007bcf6e?OpenDocument

Or you can just go to http://www.redbooks.ibm.com and search for them if
Evolution munges the links....

> 	I have a bodged together an ldap server so the 4 servers and 4
> ltsp clients at work already use the same passwords. Using pam and LDAP.
> But I want to do more I think LDAP should be the ideal tool for.

LDAP is useful in that you can expand it gradually - you just need to
get the tree right to start with. I'm just in the process of testing it
at work myself, as I'm fed up with a multitude of passwords.

>  (Query it
> in my own app written in C++, link Mozilla to it etc) Currently the only
> tool I have to add users to the system in Directory_Administor which is
> all very well but I would prefer at least some command line programs. I
> can't even get ldapsearch to work properly yet...

Have a look at gq as a GUI tool, and you just need ldapadd and an
understanding of LDIF files to populate the database.

> 	So any ideas anyone? Better still a Gllug talk on LDAP may go
> down well if anyone is capable or knows somone who is and willing to do
> so.

Bruce has done one in the past. Maybe it's time for another. If I get my
implementation to work properly I may even feel mad enough to volunteer.
Basic LDAP setup isn't that hard, but when you start tying in a lot of
services, Samba, PAM and SASL auth, plus feeding NIS maps and stuff from
it, it can get pretty complex. My setup will be fairly simple, but there
must be someone on the list with a really evil one they'd like to talk
about, even if it's just to share the misery :-).

Mike.


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